This chapter examines Virginia Woolf's response to the policing she encountered at the Canadian border by offering a reading of Three Guineas. It considers questions that were pondered by Woolf in ...
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This chapter examines Virginia Woolf's response to the policing she encountered at the Canadian border by offering a reading of Three Guineas. It considers questions that were pondered by Woolf in Three Guineas: What does it mean to be a citizen? What does it mean to uphold the law? What is this “patriotism” that we speak of? In whose benefit does the phrase “our country” work? What is our obligation to “our country”? And ultimately, in Woolf's words, “How in your opinion are we to prevent war?” Three Guineas speaks to the structural problems embedded in a patriotic, patriarchal, capitalistic hierarchy and traces the historical progression of Fascism, women's oppression, and institutionalized militarism in confluence with the university systems. The chapter also notes Woolf's concern about the connection between universities and violence, as well as her view of universities as a breeding ground for militarism and the patriotic ideals that reinforce war.Less

Stopped at the Border : Virginia Woolf and the Criminalization of Dissent in Democratic Societies

J. Ashley Foster

Published in print: 2013-06-01

This chapter examines Virginia Woolf's response to the policing she encountered at the Canadian border by offering a reading of Three Guineas. It considers questions that were pondered by Woolf in Three Guineas: What does it mean to be a citizen? What does it mean to uphold the law? What is this “patriotism” that we speak of? In whose benefit does the phrase “our country” work? What is our obligation to “our country”? And ultimately, in Woolf's words, “How in your opinion are we to prevent war?” Three Guineas speaks to the structural problems embedded in a patriotic, patriarchal, capitalistic hierarchy and traces the historical progression of Fascism, women's oppression, and institutionalized militarism in confluence with the university systems. The chapter also notes Woolf's concern about the connection between universities and violence, as well as her view of universities as a breeding ground for militarism and the patriotic ideals that reinforce war.